“When I joined Neighbor to Neighbor I was relieved to see that someone had [developed] a creative and innovative way of fostering,” she says.

That someone was Gordon Johnson, the former head of the Department of Children and Family Services in Illinois, who had witnessed a need for siblings to stay together while also maintaining a connection to their birth parents. In 1994, he founded Neighbor to Neighbor with three main principles in mind:

Siblings were to be kept together, and placed within a five mile radius of their initial home. Foster parents were to work with the birth parents to provide them mentoring and modeling of childcare. The goal would be to reunite the children with their family, or strive toward adoption or guardianship.

“Neighbor to Neighbor gives us a model to follow that allows us to help families stay together,” says Lankford. “[Unlike traditional programs] we are able to work with birth parents and let them know that they are part of something different.”

Neighbor to Neighbor’s statistics speak to the success of the program. 95% of foster parents remain in the program and 99% of siblings who are not reunited with their birth parents are adopted by their foster parents.
Neighbor to Neighbor aggressively reaches out to birth parents and extended family, giving them access to treatment facilities, services within Hull House and regular visitation. Birth parents are given a voice in the child’s welfare process. Case managers, therapists, foster care givers, family advocates and birth parents all work together as a team, building an open line of communication regarding decisions and recommendations affecting the children.